


When All is Lost (all is found)

by RosettaStarlight



Category: The Dragon Prince (Cartoon)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Angst, Angst with a Happy Ending, Fluff and Angst, Gen, Kasef Redemption, Memory Loss, Multi, Other, Platonic Relationships, Redemption, Scars, Team as Family, still uncertain whether i want romance or just platonic relationships, unless we see their body onscreen they're not dead
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-01-21
Updated: 2020-01-25
Packaged: 2021-02-27 18:41:13
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 8,022
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22348117
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/RosettaStarlight/pseuds/RosettaStarlight
Summary: A lost prince,Whose misled will led his heart far from home.An elven girl with human blood,Whose father's sins had her thrown away.An elf of the Sky and Moon,Whose heart couldn't take the pressure of never being enough.A Moonshadow,Whose refusal to kill cost him his home.A Startouch,Who was thrown out for his radical views.And a Tidebound,Whose desire to help caused her to lose her way.In the battle joined with Xadia, the Crown Prince of Neolandia was killed. Though it had created...issues with the Neolandia people, King Ezran is trying his best to push through it, yet it's not easy attempting to unite their lands in peace when they're already fighting among themselves.Meanwhile, in Xadia, a group of rogue elves find the only survivor of the Heart of Cinders spell and attempt to save him. However, when the human wakes up...he has no idea who he is.Wanting to help as well as answer questions of their own, they offer to escort the strange human to where an ancient ritual calls them to the Moon Nexus within the human lands. When it comes to light the lake is a portal between life and death, there's an opportunity for closure.
Relationships: Kasef (The Dragon Prince)/Original Character(s), Original Character(s)/Original Character(s)
Comments: 7
Kudos: 14





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Okay, I'm just gonna get this out the way: If you guys don't like OCs in Canon, then this ain't for you because there will be a good number of them in this fic, although they will eventually run into the dragang, but for now, it's just these guys, okay? If you still decide to read on, thank you very much and I hope you all enjoy it! 😊

Rogue elves were, to put it simply, what was essentially the rejects of their respective clans, or of elven society in general. Sometimes, yes, criminals, but also elves that just...weren't quite right, and either ran or were kicked out because of it.

Some were dangerous, loners, and some weren't.

One thing that remained the same was that almost all stuck together in groups. Because, really, who else did they have?

So it was as one group of rogues was searching through the aftermath of the battle at the foot of the Storm Spire for anything they could take (hey, they were dead anyway and the living needed all they could get), that they discovered one of the monstrosities that used to be human was still breathing.

One other rule that went without being said among most rogues was that they looked out for their own.

Which was how a supposed to be dead Prince ended up being dragged away from the ruined battlefield to be saved by the very people he'd attempted to wage war against.

☀️☀️☀️

* * *

Ezran hadn't really liked Kasef all that much. But he still felt sorry he'd died. At the time he'd died, Viren's magic had turned him into a monster that had nearly killed Callum, but still....

He and Ezran hadn't seen eye to eye, but he had wanted vengeance against Xadia for his father's fatal injuries. A part of the young king could understand that. He still tried to get the Neolandian Prince to see they couldn't wage war on Xadia, but instead he'd sided with Viren.

On one hand, the foreign prince had chosen his own fate; on the other, only because he thought Xadia had sent those assassins, not the Dark Mage who'd sent them out to start the war he got.

Still, Ezran felt sorry he died, a bit guilty even he hadn't been able to convince him or warn him against Viren. He didn't know how Aanya could live with something like that without so much as blinking. Her only response the one time he asked was, "Some things are necessary to be done as you will soon learn."

He felt even worse when King Ahling finally awoke from his coma over a week later, and to the news of what his eldest son had done, and to the news of his death.

True, he was a jerk who'd sided with the traitor Viren. Still, Ezran couldn't help feeling sorry for his death.

☀️☀️☀️

* * *

The first sound that came to his ears was the soft, baritone notes of someone singing, their voice pure and lovely as they sang of lost and found souls. As his eyes cracked open to the bright sunlight, he winced and shut them at the pain that met him.

The voice stopped abruptly. "I think he's finally waking up!"

"Shh!" hissed someone further away

"Look!"

"Great, the human's awake," a third, deep voice scoffed.

"Is he even fully human? I've never seen a real one up close before. Are they supposed to look like that?" asked another, this one female.

"Now's not the time for questions, Eurydice!" scolded the first voice, the one he recognized had been singing. "He's been under a lot of stress and he needs the rest."

"Of course you're the one sympathetic one, Edan," snapped the third visitor. "That's what got you thrown out your clan in the first place. Personally, I don't see why we couldn't have just let him lie in the bed he made. With all the dark magic Ateris had to pull out of him in the last week, it drained him completely, and I can still sense traces of it in him and his damned soul."

"...Maybe he was cursed," attempted Eurydice. "It's happened before."

"He's from the Storm Spire battle! We saw hundreds of monstrosities like him!"

"That doesn't mean they did it of their own free will," Eurydice defended firmly, and he felt a four-fingered hand graze over something draped over one of his eyes. "You've heard the rumors about the Dark Mage Viren."

"And unlike the others, he wasn't dead yet. The heat of battle is one thing, but leaving someone to die when mercy's an option is just cruel!" snapped Edan.

"Mercy would have been just ending his life right there! You saw what thing he had become! Ateris may have fixed him, but we don't even if he is fully human anymore with that amount of dark magic in him!"

"Then, you know what, Kouru, go ahead and do it," said Eurydice in a taunting tone. "Oh, wait, if you could kill, you wouldn't be one leg short, would you?"

There was a long, tense silence before footsteps sounded close before growing distant and fading away. An even longer silence before:

"That was low."

"You heard what he was saying —!"

"That doesn't give you the right to say that. You know how he feels about it."

He attempted to open his eyes again, bracing himself against the light, but he found one of them couldn't see anything and burned when he tried to open it as if someone had shoved a dagger into it. Two blurred faces materialized above, looking down at him. He blinked a few times before his vision in the one eye cleared and he could see them just a bit clearer.

The girl on the right was probably Eurydice, flowers growing in auburn hair and along what looked to be antlers like that of a stag, though not as tall and looked to still be growing (she must be young, then. She looked it, too, perhaps a child still), green eyes glimmering with concern and vibrant green tattoos shaped like vines snaking up against warm brown skin and around just as vibrant green eyes glimmering with concern. Though the vibrancy of the fabrics she dressed in had faded over time with small tears in the clothing, some distant part of him could recognize the fine stitching on it that told of previous wealth. On the left had to be Edan, then.

The first thing he noticed was framed on either side of them were huge, iridescent black wings that shimmered in the sunlight, open as if about to take flight but now folding into their back as their eyes widened. He couldn't be quite sure if they were male, female or neither. Their face held an androgynous look, but beautiful still (even their name could go either way). Horns curled back through long pearl white hair braided and falling over one shoulder to reach their waist. The bluish-gray tint to their skin was the color of a stormy sky that can't decide whether or not it'll rain, and their eyes were an unsettling shade of teal that seemed to almost glow. Their simple clothing of dark blues and silvery grays was tied and cuffed close to the skin as if to keep there from being as little free-flowing cloth as possible.

"You're awake!" Edan grinned, eyes bright. They looked up at Eurydice. "Quick, go check if Ateris is awake yet. And if he's not, try Suna."

She gave a sharp nod and darted before disappearing from view. He tried to sit up, but even the twitch of his fingers as he tried to move at all made him cry out. Everything felt like he was burning from within, like there was fire in his veins looking to scorch every inch of him alive from the inside.

His good eye squeezed shut again as his breath hissed in and out through clenched teeth.

A hand rested on his forehead before yanking away sharply. "You're burning up. He said there would probably be residue magic in you. Never seen anything like it." They hesitated. "Like Sun magic, but... dark and twisted." As he slowly forced his eye open again, he found they were gone from their line of sight.

But a second later, they were back with a small glass vial of iridescent white liquid. They took out the cork, and then their hand was lifting his head up despite his hiss of pain as they coaxed him to drink.

Once the thick liquid had made its way down his throat, a cool, numbing sensation almost instantly flooded his body, and he let out a shaky sigh of relief.

"That should help until we can figure out how to properly help you," Edan mumbled through the cork clenched between their teeth before they promptly placed it back on the half-empty glass. "Ateris has dealt with dark magic, primal magic, but this is different. He's still trying to figure out the right combination to return you back to normal." Then they stopped and amended. "I mean, you look _relatively_ normal now, but there are still traces of whatever spell it was the Dark Mage Viren used."

His throat was dry and _burned_ as he opened his mouth but he had to ask. "Where am I?" he croaked.

They jumped at the sound of his voice. It took a moment for them to answer as their mouth opened and closed before finally, they seemed to settle with, "You shouldn't really strain yourself. But... we're nowhere any passerbys will find us if that's your concern. Trust me, no one wants anything to do with us either."

His brow furrowed. "What...happened?"

Edan's eyes widened and their expression turned to one of concern and even pity. "Don't you remember?" they asked, voice softened to almost a whisper.

He tried to, racked his brain for any recollection of the event they spoke of. But all he found in its place was a blank space. "No..."

Something flashed across their face. "What's your _name_?"

He tried again, but for some reason as he searched through the archives of his memory, he found... Nothing. Not even a flicker. "I... I don't...know...."


	2. Chapter One

"What do you mean he doesn't know?!"

"That's what he told me, okay! What do you want me to do about that?"

"So you're telling me he doesn't know his own name? How can anybody forget their own name, Edan?"

"It's not impossible, Aasa! It's a thing called amnesia! Anybody can get it!"

"Both of you, stop it!" 

Both elves went silent with his arrival. The elf towered above them and the others easily, horns curling back through unkempt hair dark as night pulled back from his face, long enough to reach his waist. His skin was obsidian with stars freckling his skin, the trademark star birthmarks under his eyes gold like the star crest shining on his chest. A choker made of silver wrapped around his neck in swirling patterns of vines and a bright red gem in the center. Much like Eurydice, he wore rich fabrics with fine stitching, although unlike her, his remained in pristine condition, black with white trimmings, the cloak draped upon his shoulders lined with fur along the collar and the dark ebony fabric sparkled also as if embedded with diamonds. The pouch at the belt on his waist was filled with spell ingredients and small significant things from his past, that which he could remember.

To anyone passing by at night, he could easily have been mistaken for a god. Then again, most Startouch were regarded as ethereal beings, connected to the Star Primal and able to see into the future. 

If his height wasn't enough to or his very appearance, his voice alone was intimidating enough to quiet even Aasa's temper. Not loud, per se, yet expansive, unspoken threats and vows embroidered into the very fabric of his tone. 

At first glance, he was terrifying to say the least. But he took care of them, had helped when everyone else had turned their backs on them, had taken their hand when they had been thrown out into the dark and vowed to never let them feel that way again. Ateris had cared more for them than most of their own parents had, treated them better, too.

"In a bad mood? You're picking fights with everyone today," he berated. Letting out a huff, Aasa rolled his eyes at him before flashing Edan a glare and moving away.

"Everyone's on the human's side today!" he called back as he stormed off.

"Everything was fine," Edan insisted, brushing a strand of loose hair out of their face. "Aasa's just being Aasa. I grew up in the same community, I know the racism they drill into our heads; just because I'm different doesn't mean he would be."

"You said the human was awake?"

Edan sighed. "Yeah, um, he's in pain but he is awake and I gave him something to help." They attempted a nervous smile. "But...he doesn't really seem to remember anything. Not even his name." They walked alongside Ateris as he started toward the man he was giving his energy to attempt to heal. "Are you doing okay?"

"All I needed was a bit of rest. I'm fine now." A hand rested on their shoulder, and Edan glanced over at him. "This is a special case that I have yet to see before. It could be an opportunity for research and to see how one could combine dark magic and one of the Primal Sources, and their effects. Even I had not gone so far as to those lengths."

"There's a limit, a line that shouldn't be crossed." Edan looked down. Though they did not understand the prospects of dark magic, they understood sometimes it _was_ necessary and _acceptable_ even, but it was damaging. Damaging to the body, the mind, the soul. As beings with magic in their air and very _blood_ , perhaps it wasn't so easy to see why there was need for Dark Magic when they _knew_ it was wrong, but humans had _none_ of that, and yet they still managed to survive since the Divide and thrive even. But sometimes things happen, and magic was necessary, and Dark Magic was the only answer they had left since Xadia had long since left them to die after forcing them onto lands without magic. "Do you think whatever it was he did, he thought he was doing the right thing?"

Ateris' face was blank, showing little expression as he turned to the Skyshadow alongside him. "I've lived long enough to see many wars over the centuries. Seen them won and lost by one or either side, but every time, lives are lost." For the first time since they'd known him, they heard just the slightest tremble in his voice. "When it comes to war, it's never easy to tell who the good or bad guys are. Sometimes there _are_ no good guys or bad guys. But one thing people always get wrong is that there are only two sides in war."

Edan raised a white eyebrow. "What do you mean?"

"There's also a third side that often is disregarded, and often suffers the most."

A war with three sides? "And who is fighting on the third side?" 

"No one." He fixed them with a piercing gaze, gold irises surrounded by black sclera. "No one is fighting on the third side. They're just getting _hurt_." Then he released a heavy sigh and continued on, gently ushering on Edan even as they dwelled on his words, twisting their fingers between their hands. "Every person killed on either side leaves an empty space in someone on the third, and that emptiness makes everyone who knew them sad. And angry."

"What does that make people like us, then? And if the human was once on the fighting side, does that now mean he is on the third side? The side that is hurt."

Ateris hesitated. "People can be on more than oneside. Perhaps that's why this war between Xadia and the humans has gone on as long as it has. We keep shifting from the hurt sideto the fighting sides." 

"So...you're saying that in war, there's no way to win for anyone. There is only three options: To fight, to kill, or to be hurt as innocent bystanders."

"There's a reason that war can be worse than hell."

Edan was silent now, their eyes distant.

He wasn't finished, though. "But there is something else. A fourth option. And we picked it when we decided to save him. You threw yourself at it when you decided to run away. Aasa chose it when he decided his morals were more important than his leg. Can you guess what it is?" 

Edan twisted their fingers between their hands as they thought. Then they looked up at him. "Life." Life. Not death. 

Death was the start of this war. Death was what had kept going this never-ending cycle of hatred and violence. Kill a king of one land, they will retaliate out of pain and fear. Then someone will hurt them right back. And it just goes on. And on. And on. 

It never would have ended if the conscious decision hadn't been made to choose the fourth option out of them all. And by a group of children nonetheless. 

And unless they desired the cycle to start again, they needed to choose to change the way things were. Edan studied their hands. Though they and Aasa had grown up so similarly, in the same communities but different villages in a rigid society shaped by rituals and duties followed like the cycles of the moon, Edan's were different because of the decision they made when they just couldn't stand the never-ending pressure to be enough when they just...weren't. Slender, callused fingers still stained with charcoal, palms sturdy from years in their youth mixing paints and wielding a brush over a canvas. Always looking to create instead of kill, desiring to know more than only how to bring death.

To Moonshadow, if you couldn't complete your duties as tradition demanded, you were looked down upon for not being enough, for not being _strong enough_ , as if there was only one kind of strength. Each person had one role to fulfill at any cost. Failure was not even a possibility, mistakes punished severely. 

And Edan knew that way of life was killing _them_ , not physically, but on the inside. It had been destroying the fragments of their mind to push themselves time and time again only to be deemed not enough, that because they were only _half_ , as if that deemed them _lesser_ than the others. Yet when they left because they decided they just needed to try and better themselves and their mental health, they had been labeled a coward. 

Well, in that case, Edan would rather be a whole person than a broken warrior.

"Too much death has got us into this mess," Ateris said. "You saw the battlefield. You saw the bodies. Remember they all used to be living people. With families. With homes they came out here to defend no matter the cost. With people back home who will never see them again. Whether he deserved it or not, let's not allow one more to be added to the list.

☀️☀️☀️

* * *

"How do you think it feels to not have horns?"

"I don't know. How does it feel to have horns?"

"Good point. What's a fifth finger good for when four works just fine?"

"I...don't know? It's just always been there, I...think."

"I think elf hands are just a bit wider, don't you think. To make up for the space a fifth finger would?"

"I wouldn't know."

"Do all humans look like you, or are you just one?"

 _"_ I. don't _. know._ I _don't remember."_ He almost felt bad about the exasperation breaking through in his tone, but ancients, he just wanted to close his eyes and go back to rest where he didn't have to face the constant searing pain that was constantly at the back of his mind as the liquid that dulled it before was starting to wear off. Instead, he had to listen to the elf girl who decided now was the time to talk his ear off.

Even with one or two-worded answers, she shot a volley of questions faster than he could keep up. They ranged from, "What treats do humans like?" and "Can you guys eat what we eat?" to questions such as the one she asked now of, "Why don't you have markings? Is there no spirit bark in the human lands?" and "Do you guys have five toes, too?" Which he didn't understand considering when she raised one of her hands to compare though she didn't dare try to move him, her hands held five fingers instead of the four her winged companion held.

She distracted him enough that he almost forgot the issue that he had no idea where he was, who he was, or who these people were.

Almost.

Of course, it didn't help every time he tried to open one of his eyes, it felt like someone had tried to stab him through to his skull with a dagger. A blunt one. And it kept causing his good eye to go in and out of focus.

She had used a couple of blankets to prop up his head in an effort to make him more comfortable, much to her current companion's chagrin.

Rife with barely suppressed irritation, the third voice—Aasa, had to be, snapped when he let out a hiss of pain through clenched teeth, "Don't be such a baby." The elf leaned against a rock. Half of long white hair curtained his face while the other half was shaved close to his head. "If you can feel pain, it means you're still alive. A lot back there can't say the same."

"Speaking of which, do you think we should feed him at some point? What do humans even eat?" Eurydice asked.

"Food,” he said dryly. Exhaustion made his eye shut again before he forced it open again.

"Well, I'm vegetarian, but I think—"

"Just say dead animals," growled Aasa, his arms folded across his chest. "Because I'm pretty sure humans eat dead animals."

Eurydice glared at the interruption before rolling her eyes. "Well, last I checked, so did almost every other creature on the planet."

"We are _not_ ," snapped Aasa, “Killing a living creature to feed a _human_.”

"Said human is literally right here."

"Oh, would you relax!" exclaimed Eurydice in exasperation as she searched through the bag strapped across her chest. She came back up with a small glass filled with a deep red liquid the color of blood. "I was just going to offer some berry juice."

"Isn't that your last flask?"

"It's my only flask until we reach the next town," she shrugged.

"Then save it. We don't even know if he can digest it yet."

“Calm yourself, Aasa." At the sound of the unfamiliar voice, both of them looked away from each other and to the ground, looking like children caught stealing from the cookie jar. Into his line of sight came the tallest elf he'd yet to see, not including his horns branching out. “Humans are capable of eating what we do. Eurydice is old enough to make her own decisions. If she wishes to feed him, let her.” He turned and looked at her. “When you're done, go help Suna with the fishing.”

She let out an indignant noise. “But that job is boring!” Eurydice wilted under the weight of the look he flashed her. “… But important. And necessary. And I will go do it. Right now.”

Sparing a glance at Aasa, she knelt down beside the scarred human to fix the blankets. “Don't worry, even if Ateris leaves you alone with Moony,” she whispered to him, rolling up her sleeves. “Believe it or not, Aasa's all bark and no bite. He couldn’t kill a glow toad while starving to death in the desert, much less a person. He's just—”

“Eurydice,” said Aasa through gritted teeth. “For once. Stop. Talking.”

She stopped talking. But not before muttering, "Bite me."

“Edan,” said Ateris. “Circle the perimeter. Make sure no one's coming this way. Just because Queen Zubeia has declared peace doesn't mean anyone will take too kindly to a human in their lands—"

"Especially when they sense the Dark magic staining his soul."

Ateris went on as if he hadn't heard Aasa speak. "Centuries of prejudice and hatred don't disappear overnight. We can't be caught unaware."

Edan nodded mutely before their wings spanned out and they took off into the air. Aasa jumped up on the closest high rock outcropping, Eurydice disappearing around a bend, while Ateris himself sat beside the scarred human, his face noticeably drawn.

Then after taking a brief look over him, a small smile broke over his face, his voice surprisingly gentle. "Perhaps you don't remember who you were, but—" he picked up a gold circlet laying on the ground nearby, and as he held it up, something pinged in the back of the human's mind but he couldn't quite put his finger on what it was— "it's obvious you were someone important. Until you find out who that is, you can rest assured we will keep you alive until then."


	3. Chapter 2

He was lucky, Ateris had said. Lucky to be found in Xadia instead of the human lands. There, it was likely, he would have perished. In Xadia, the very nature around them was useful for healing, but over there, there was no such magic. No such help that would have saved his life, because even if he had been alive, besides the arrows they found in his body they had to take out, the amount of dark magic in his body was not that of which the human body was meant to endure. Or anyone for that matter. To have not been killed immediately whenever he used it first, was a miracle in itself and showed the strength he must have, or the determination for his cause. 

" _Ugh_ , don't make excuses for him." Then again, Aasa had very different opinions and did not seem shy about voicing them, even from what seemed to be a spot for time out. "He doesn't get a free pass for things done in a time of war. He's not a child, is he? He knew what he was getting himself into."

"Don't make send you out on patrol until you calm down." Ateris didn't even look up at him, only took out a small jar of ointment to apply to the scars running all over the human's body, though the more severe seemed to be those in his eye and hand where he was shot, one even only a few inches from his heart. Those would heal with time, faster than they normally would, but the white scars against warm brown skin running like cracks in stone along his face, his arms, his chest, replacing the streams of lava that had previously ran across his body, seeming to branch off from a large white scar directly over where his heart beat.... Those were never fading. 

Scars sustained from Dark Magic never faded, no matter how long time had passed. If one had used it long enough, it began to stain the physical appearance, not only the heart and mind. At least it would be a lesson to follow him wherever he went. A lesson to himself and to others.

Undeterred from the Moonshadow's comment, Ateris carefully removed the bandage over the boy's eye-- because now that Ateris took a better look now, he truly was little more than a boy, perhaps only a year or two past his coming-of-age (of course, then again, at his age, most people seemed like children to him)-- and applied a small amount of ointment. The arrow had pierced straight through the eye socket, so deep that he had to have Edan shield Eurydice's eyes and ears when he pulled it out before the human had started screaming. There had been no saving that even if the scar faded.

But he had his other eye and his life, he'd be fine, and if the wounds healed up fine, he wouldn't succumb to infection either. The human cried out in pain and turned his head away at the touch on his wounded eye, but Ateris quickly tilted his head back in place and went on. "Just relax. You're going to live. Once you rest and eat something, I'll have to check through to make sure I got everything I could, but otherwise, I think you might recover."

He tried to speak, to say something, but then Ateris' lips moved as he muttered the words, " _Et_ _tam_ _dulcis_ _somno_ _somnia_ _."_ The human didn't even feel himself slip away before he passed into peaceful sleep and his face relaxed.

"Great! Now, for the next problem: When can he move so we can dump him at a hospital or something and move on?" Aasa demanded, dropping down, apparently grown impatient. "The sooner the better. No one likes us enough already, I'd rather not make it worse by having them think us traitors and sympathizers." 

Giving a tired sigh, Ateris answered with one of his own. "When can we help him move, you mean?" He checked the human's temperature, and was surprised to find Edan's guesses right that he was burning up. If it was a Sunfire elf, he wouldn't be worried; connected to the sun and being able to harness that heat meant they had a higher temperature than most. Humans, on the other hand, if they went so high could die. But he didn't show any signs of a fever.... "He won't be moving on his own for at least a couple more days, but we can start traveling tomorrow night. Give him tonight and tomorrow to rest, and we should be on our way."

"A whole night and day." Ateris understood his reservations. He had been raised to think in terms of survival his whole life. If on the run or in hiding on a mission, he had been trained to follow those rules strictly and punished severely enough if he forgot them that they were now engraved into his brain: Never stay in one place more than a night, don't leave tracks where someone unwanted could follow you, travel light and travel prepared, sometimes the wounded _had_ to be left behind if they slowed you down too much. Think only in terms of practicality and never allow your emotions to control your actions, always be on alert (he had lost count of the amount of times someone had merely tried to wake him up only to find a knife at their throat). "That's a long time with wounded in tow."

"Which is why we're making sure someone is scouting," Ateris said. "When Edan comes back, you'll take first watch."

Aasa nodded, his gaze hard and guarded before he made to retreat, but turned back briefly at the sound of Ateris' voice.

"I understand what they've put you through. But don't take your anger out on one who had nothing to do with it for merely being part of the same species."

"I am. Just. Fine," he snapped through gritted teeth. 

"Psychologically speaking, vengeance rarely brings one the catharsis they hope for."

"Then good thing I have no idea what you're talking about. I'm fine. And I don't want to talk about this."

"It would help, perhaps, if you did." Ateris didn't miss the way his fists clenched before he loosened them up with a deep breath.

"I'll talk if I want to," snapped Aasa as he looked over his shoulder. "And I certainly don't right now." Ateris let him go.

He peered into the human's face and saw his face had grown more relaxed. Not a languish to the world, but the faintest eagerness just to sleep without pain or peril. Then again, perhaps he was imagining all that. Perhaps it was his own relief that he was reading.

After so many years, Ateris found it easy to discern the facial expressions of many. That of those terrible and excellent at hiding them. But he always hated the fact that he knew what someone looked like on the brink of death. Death and pain beyond what their senses could handle. It wasn't the first in the past centuries he'd lived, watching the life leave someone's eyes as their soul departed into the realm of the dead, or being able to tell when he'd just barely coaxed them to stay among the living, but for once, he just prayed it would be the last.

Even if the human chose to try to hide his scars the best he could later on when he awoke, his face alone assured no one would ever be able to look at him-- he wouldn't even be able to look at himself without remembering this. This pain and how close he'd come to death. Unusual in how there was a burnt quality to them, but they were... different in nature.

When he woke and was strong enough to, Ateris would have to search with his magic what _exactly_ he experienced, what exact words were spoken to make him like this. Not solely for research, but because it was still his duty not only to him but to the others to make sure that nothing was going to become a problem from those experiences. Even Aasa wasn't too outrageous to question that.

Dark magic. Whatever dark magic had been inflicted upon him, Ateris needed to know _what kind_ and could it still hurt him or them now.

When he got up. When he regained a bit of his strength.

Ateris would also need to question who. From the rumors, it was Katolis' previous high mage, this Lord Viren who the tales told had apparently stolen the egg of The Dragon Prince and tried to lead an army into Xadia. Some naive part of himself had always tried to protect Eurydice from the horrors of dark magic. Though he had used it himself time before, when he saw Aasa's fear of it, he had promised him he wouldn't use it in front of him unless it was absolutely necessary, and when she joined them, that vow was also made to himself. She was still young, and though she had experienced the hatred the world was capable of for herself, there was still certain things no one should need to know at her age until at least much later in life.

Aasa's anger concealed his fear. It was reflex; ridiculously enough Moonshadows had this aversion towards showing fear and emotions, but his fear was reasonable. He had seen and endured terrible things. Nasty things.

Things that should not have been, but humans had found dark magic and, though with it, it could ensure survival and bring good things as well as bad, had also created the most unnatural things anybody would ever witness because of it. Dark magic could be... invasive. Pervasive. Aasa had reason to be afraid; he had felt it's tendrils on him before, unwillingly. 

But that had been years ago. He insisted he was ready now, that he had grown past it. But that didn't change the nights he woke up frantic and terrified, barely able to breathe, as if his mind still there, still trapped.

The whole thing sent a shudder through him that he was glad no was around to see. 

For now, he simply placed the bandage back over his eye and watched the human's steady rise and fall of his chest while he hoped it wouldn't be another repeat of the night before when it had ever-so briefly stopped.

* * *

Meanwhile Eurydice was put to work fishing with Suna, although it was apparent that fishing wasn't exactly her calling. Though she could understand the fish quite well and tell where they were by where she heard their voices, she hadn't the patience for it. It wasn't that she hated water, per se; she could tolerate it, after all, land and water resided side by side as it had always been. 

But, well, they were also kept separate. And Eurydice would very much prefer to keep them separate if she could help it. Besides, she would much rather gather plants, asking them if she could borrow some of their leaves or stems or flowers and explaining her intentions each time, thanking or apologizing to them when she took them to bring back to camp. So after about half an hour of loud sighing, Suna sent her to do just that. 

Once she got the necessary plants, politely asking the soothleaf bushes if she could borrow just a few for a friend in critical condition to ease his pain before taking the amount needed, and also asking a three-tailed squirrel where to find berries, she sat on a rock near the lake Suna fished, weaving a small crown of flowers (of course, she'd asked the flowers beforehand if she could use them to make a pretty gift for a friend). As Suna rose from the lake, muttering a spell to return to her land form, she wrung out wet hair the color of seaweed, coral pink eyes examining the elf girl's collection as she heaved the net full of the day's catch. 

Similar to the net slung over her broad shoulders, her sleeves were white thread with her dark complexion showing through the diagonal gaps until it reached her shoulders. Along her forehead and under her eyes, dark blue dots stretched out to disappear beneath the drying ringlets of hair, the largest of each in the center, and each marking slightly smaller than the one before it in either direction. From within her hair, out poked a pair of light bluish grey horns as well as two points ears rimmed by shimmering fins a fair shade of blue. 

"Got everything I asked?" 

Eurydice merely nodded before going back to her work in progress. Narrowing her eyes, she sighed before sitting herself beside the child.

"How does he look?" Suna asked. Perhaps it wasn't the brightest question about someone who had so clearly been on death's door, but it was an honest one.

"Tired," Eurydice whispered. "Why does everyone keep thinking I don't know what's happening. I'm not stupid, I have eyes." Irritation tinged her voice as she threaded the dandelion stems together. 

"Well, you're still young. You haven't had the opportunity to see what we have--"

"I'm not that young. I turn thirteen next week. I'm practically a teenager, anyways," Eurydice retorted immediately, in that voice children get when they're determined to prove just how old and wise they are to everybody in the vicinity.

Suna raised her hands in defense. "Whatever you say." Then she poked her in the stomach. "But it doesn't matter if you're seven years or seven months younger than me, I'm still calling you kid," she joked, finally eliciting a laugh from her, albeit Eurydice immediately after clamped her mouth shut to keep another from escaping. 

Suna still kept her voice low. "One, he's going to make it. You won't see death twice in one week if Stardrop can help it. And two, I get you're curious, but...don't look into stuff you're not sure you're going to like the answer to."

Eurydice frowned, her fingers stilled. "Moonshadows are taught to accept death, right? So they won't fear it?" Suna nodded. "But what someone else's? How do they deal with that?" It was common knowledge that Edan hadn't been able to, and for all his talk, when it came down to it, Aasa couldn't bring down his blade. So how did anyone else deal with it? To see the light fade from someone's eyes, to bring a person's end without so much a blink, or to do all they could to save a comrade or just someone caught in the crossfire? Or to just leave someone dying there without any thought afterwards?

Suna had no direct answer for that. Moonshadows tended to linger within the past, set in their ways, tradition making their way of life and aversed to change; Startouch were generally distant because they are taught to look towards the future and once it is seen, there is no changing it; Skywing and Tidebound however understood that like the tides and currents, life was ever-changing, ever-moving. To stay in one place too long could mean trouble. So they preferred to stay within the present, though while that was the end of it for Skywings who merely chose to stay within the present and worry not of the past of future, Tidebound happened differentiate in that philosophy:

Learn from the past, prepare for the future, but never let that hinder you from focusing on the here and now. Like when swimming through the unpredictable ocean during a storm, if you stayed too still in the same place too long, you would end up going under. Same if you tried to fight it. The best way was to keep your head up and adapt to make it work in your favor. "I know it's different to you Earthbloods who are all about preserving and protecting life, but there's still a lot you've yet to see. Sometimes things just _happen_ and there's nothing we can do about it but learn. Don't be afraid."

Eurydice paused in her motions. "I'm not afraid," she grumbled. "But if death were to come for you today, do you think you'd be ready? What if he has someone out there who thinks he's dead like all the others. If I feel this way about someone I don't even know who's not even dead yet, how would someone who actually knew him and does think him dead feel?"

"It's different for certain people. Some don't fear death--"

"But there's a rule for every exception? Is that what you were going to say?" She raised a brow and glanced at Suna sideways. She snorted when the Tidebound smiled faintly at her. "Yeah, you might be right."

"One day you'll have to get used to saying that," she joked. Then a mischievous smile growing, she took out one of her catches from the net and shoved it into Eurydice's face. She laughed as the girl shrieked, flailing away before tumbling off the rock she'd perched herself upon. "And until then, you'll also have to get used to _that_!"

* * *

The world is different when King Ahling finally wakes up. In ways both good and bad. 

Peace between their lands and Xadia had been achieved. There was no longer any threat or danger except for the Dark Mage the kingdoms were now searching for. In all ways, it should be a joyous time. Except, for one insignificant detail that was not so to the royal family of Neolandia.

What pain he felt while he returned to the world, vision blurry before he blinked it away, would be nothing compared to that he would experience once he heard.

Healers were bustling in and out of his chambers, ordering him to drink water and various potions but he refused to rest. Not until he saw his children. In kind, the healers refused to soften the blow of the truth of his condition, how lucky he was to be alive. Except for Queen Aanya, he was the sole survivor of what was a series of attacks on the rest of the Pentarchy, starting with Katolis.

But he knows. He knows how close he came to death and that it was pure luck he breathed now. And he also knows that if it nearly took his life, it very well could have put his children in similar danger. One of his last memories was shouting outside his bedroom, and even a scream that could only belong to his youngest. Where were they? Were they alright?

He doesn't think the guards would have let them be harmed, and he knows Kasef would have rather died himself than let the assassin make it to his siblings. But he does not know for sure.

When he asks, people look away, they dodge the question, they insist he rest. But they do not answer. Eventually, one finally tells him that Latika and Mahdi would see him now. His son and daughter, age eleven and thirteen respectively. He remembers the blood, the assassin that seemed made of smoke and shadow, hoping even as the blade came down that it would bring no harm to his children sleeping down the hall. 

_But where is Kasef?_

The healer's face pinches. She doesn't answer as she steps away.

When they enter, there is something different about them. Nothing physical beside how stiff they stood, so unlike themselves. Latika's eyes were distant, as if her body was there, one arm wrapped about Mahdi, but her mind was not. It wasn't until they were left in private that all composure broke.

Ahling wasted no time in sweeping both into his arms as much as he can, Mahdi's face buried in his neck; he can feel the wetness of tears on the young boy’s face. Latika's arms are limp around him, not even moving to hug him back, though he hugs both of them to him with what little strength he has. 

"Papa, I was so—" Ahling cupped the back of Mahdi's head as he tried to speak, weak fingers threading through black hair.

"Shh, I know, but everything's going to be fine now," he shushed. "Everything's going to be just fine."

For the first time in their visit, Latika's hand twitches against his back.

It’s when they are facing each other that Ahling asks, _"Where is your brother?"_

Up to this point, Latika had remained motionless, her eyes still empty even when he pulled her away to look her properly in the face to see a scar stretching from the corner of her lips to her hairline. Tears brimmed the corners of his eyes as he traced it, feeling the depth of it and knowing the likeliness of it ever fading away was slim to nothing. An ever-present reminder of what was probably the most terrifying night of her life. _  
_

But that one question made something spark. Her face breaks down, she collapses to the ground if not for Ahlings arms around her, sobs wrack her body, all words coming out of her mouth in a unintelligible rush through her tears.

Kasef would have been acting king, in his absence, to take his father's place until he had recovered, if he had recovered. Hopefully, nothing too bad had happened under his reign. He loves his son, truly he does, and he knows the boy is trying his best, but Kasef wouldn't even eat his vegetables without putting up a fight. He was stubborn and reckless, prone to anger easily, and would let his emotions take control in times, where to be a proper king, had to be put in the back of the mind. But who knows, maybe Kasef would surprise him.

But....

He sees his children's reactions at the mere mention of him, how his—now his oldest— _breaks_ at the mere mention of him, and all the air is knocked out of him. He knows that he should think himself lucky. Knows that the assassins are gone. Knows that against all odds, he is awake and alive. Knows that at least his other children survived. 

He knows that he should be counting himself as lucky.

Years ago after their mother died, Ahling promised himself that he would never cry in front of his children. So much had changed in such a small amount of time then, and he wanted to be a cheery, positive force to remind them that the world had not ended, that things would be fine and get better.

He breaks that promise now. And now though he had been so hopeful, so glad he could be there for his children in this time of uncertainty, he wishes the assassin had finished its job, if only so he wouldn’t know this pain.

Because this—this is so much worse than death.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So how's everyone doing today? :)
> 
> Also: I swear if Tidebound elves are not essentially mermaids than what is the freaking point?

**Author's Note:**

> Author's Note: Okay, I'm still undecided on whether I want there to be romance or just have this be completely platonic. But either way, I made this after seeing a piece of fanart on Tumblr, and lightbulbs kinda went off in my brain. Besides, his story arc is actually kind of sad since though from one perspective, he is a jerk, his father is almost killed, they're in the dark and have no idea what's going on or if another attack will happen, just that they were elven assassins sent by Xadia (and really, he has no reason to think otherwise unless he did research on the country) and considering what happened to the other kingdoms, literally anyone who doesn't know the full story would take this as a declaration of war so he rightfully wants justice for his father and wants to protect his kingdom (plus, it's also said he's the ELDEST son, so he has younger siblings that he now has to look after as well), and the fact they just...killed him off so easily never sat right with me.)


End file.
